Heidi Enns, the city’s parks, recreation and culture general manager, told council Monday that she hopes to see the subsidy reduced to $900,000 in the years to come.

That reduced financial support comes as the Abbotsford Centre reported more than a doubling of attendance at events through 2016. A total of 154,162 people have taken in 34 different events so far this year. That’s a sharp uptick from 2015, when 65,385 attended 17 events.

Mayor Henry Braun had previously expressed doubt that it would be possible to get the subsidy below $1 million.

Now, with the facility approaching that figure, he gave credit to city employees.

“We’ve made great strides and this is all without a major tenant and I think staff needs to be thanked for the effort and work that have gone into making that happen.”

Coun. Dave Loewen noted that the Abbotsford Centre isn’t the only city-owned facility to be subsidized by taxpayers. The city paid more than $1 million each to operate the Abbotsford Recreation Centre and the Matsqui Recreation Centre in 2015. Arenas not including Abbotsford Centre received $1.4 million in subsidies last year.